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DVD Tuesday: Blade Runner the Magnificent
Bladerunner courtesy Warner Bros.
I was dazzled by Blade Runner from the first time I saw it, on the day it opened in 1982. The cute 'n' cuddly E.T. killed it at the box office and reviews were mixed (everybody agreed that it was visually dazzling, but most critics were underwhelmed by the story), but over the years Blade Runner's reputation has grown from cult classic to widely recognized masterpiece — it's often called the best science-fiction film ever made, and it's unquestionably one of the most influential. There's a new version of the film — Blade Runner: The Final Cut — coming to DVD on Dec. 18, following a limited theatrical re-release (it was shown at the New York Film Festival last weekend). But Blade Runner is great in any version.
The first movie based on a novel by sci-fi visionary Philip K. Dick — Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — Blade Runner is set in a decaying future Los Angeles where humanoid "replicants" do humanity's dirtiest jobs, from fighting wars to staffing brothels, and everyone who can afford to get out has moved to one of the off-world colonies. Detective Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is assigned to track down a small gang of rogue replicants — "skin jobs," as his sleazy boss calls them — on the loose in L.A. after defying their programming by hijacking a space shuttle and killing everyone on board. Deckard's investigation takes him through L.A.'s underworld, to the glittering heights of wealth and privilege and, ultimately, deep into his own head. Though the movie differs greatly from Dick's novel, its core concern is the same: What does it mean to be human?
The cast is flawless: Dutch heavy Rutger Hauer as head replicant Roy Batty and Daryl Hannah as lethal sex toy Pris, Brion James and Joanna Cassidy as their partners in crimes of the future, character actor Joseph Turkel (The Shining's enigmatic bartender; ironically, the landscape shots used for the tacked-on happy ending were borrowed from The Shining) as the head of the company that makes replicants and William Sanderson as one of his employees, Edward J. Olmos as Deckard's enigmatic partner, and M. Emmett Walsh as their boss. Even Ford's stiffness works here: Deckard is uncomfortable in his own skin — even he doesn't know how uncomfortable. And forget all the tabloid craziness about Sean Young; she's fantastic as the state-of-the-art replicant who has no idea she's not human.
Blade Runner's production history was notoriously troubled: Perfectionist director Ridley Scott (then fresh off Alien) alienated much of the cast and crew, the film went over budget and the previews went badly, leading to the 11th-hour addition of Ford's widely — and rightly — despised hard-boiled voiceover and a new, less-downbeat ending.
Since its rediscovery on (in order) video, laser disc and DVD, there have been numerous versions of Blade Runner, starting with the 1989 discovery of print minus the "happy" ending and most of the voiceover. Scott wasn't happy with that version either, but it helped further polish the film's reputation by eliminating elements that never felt as though they belonged in the first place. That version also restored a brief but crucial scene involving Deckard's dream of a unicorn, a crucial piece of evidence that the great irony of Deckard's mission is that he too is a replicant.
You can talk about versions for days, but the fact is, Blade Runner's dystopian future is gripping no matter what, and not just because it looks so seductively gloomy or because Scott's design team found such amazingly offbeat L.A. architecture, including the baroque Bradbury Building (also featured in Chinatown and the original DOA) and Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House, to incorporate into his vision of a seductively decaying future.
Things to consider:
Where do you stand on Blade Runner: Masterpiece, or style over substance?
What movie do you think is criminally underrated?
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
Hear Maitland on the weekly podcast TV Guide Talk.
See Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this week's new flicks on the Movie Talk vodcast.
Previously in DVD Tuesday:
Zodiac
Manhunter
A Simple Plan
Taxi Driver
Renaissance
Blowup
Hot Fuzz
300
Ace in the Hole
Eyes Without a Face
Apocalypto
Citizen Kane
La Jetée
Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)
Bob le Flambeur
Near Dark
Perfect Blue
Pan's Labyrinth
Les Girls
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
The Queen
Expresso Bongo
I'm Not Scared
Shocking Grindhouse Double Bill! — Scanners and The Candy Snatchers
Don't Look Now
Re-Animator
Casino Royale
http://community.tvguide.com/thread.jspa?threadID=800073953#comments">Pi
The Prestige
13 Tzameti
The Departed
Suspiria
Kiss and Make Up
Kiss Me Deadly
The Long Good Friday
What Alice Found
The Devil's Backbone
The Descent
The Devil Wears Prada
Pandora's Box
The Thief and the Cobbler
Nashville
Panic in the Streets/Jack Palance Interview
The Pusher Trilogy
Scarface
Slither
Sunset Blvd.
In Cold Blood
Brick
Also: This week's new DVD releases
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Oct 2, 2007 3:31 PM
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Why is there one and only one theatrical showing of BR: The Final Cut in L.A. on this coming Friday?! ARRGH! I don't think I can make it!!
Under-rated movies? Hmmmmm... that's hard. I mean, there's a lot of stuff I like that can be put in the "cult" category. But that doesn't make a movie under-rated. Just "under-represented" or something. Over-rated is much easier. Gotta think about this one...
Maitland:
There are parts of this entry that need a spoiler alert for people unfamiliar with the movie.
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Oct 2, 2007 6:39 PM
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Yeah, what can you say about Blade Runner? You're absolutely right, it's a complete masterpiece, in every way. What can you say that hasn't been said many times before? It took the ideas of Philip K Dick (although the story is heavily, heavily altered, I mean for gods sake, Deckard was married in the book!) and combined it beautifully with the emerging cyberpunk genre that was to be perfected two years later with Neuromancer. The dark gritty look is mindblowing and the atmosphere is pure Hammett.
Something that really strikes me is how well the special effects hold up. I mean, the police-car flying through LA and especially approaching Tyrell Industries still takes my breath away. It is truly an amazing feat of filmmaking.
As for criminally under-rated, can I instead choose something that is criminally over-looked? I just recently rewatched low-budget modern sci-fi marvel Primer, and I so want people to go see that movie! I mean, I don't understand a lick of it (there are charts and stuff on the web detailing what the hell happens, but they are not much help) but just experiencing it is enough. You don't need to get every jump in time, just watching it and taking from it what you can is enough to completely boggle the mind. Personally, I was really proud that I was able to follow along with just the scientific lingo 
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Oct 2, 2007 6:50 PM
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We're big Ridley Scott fans here in this house (most of his stuff with a couple exceptions) and probably Alien is our favorite followed closely by Blade Runner. We've bought every enhanced version of Blade Runner coming out on DVD over the years. We may even have a VHS tape of it. We'll buy this one too. It is, in my opinion, the best and darkest Sci Fi movie ever made. i consider Alien a monster movie.
I don't think you can say enough good things about the performances as well as the look of the movie. The city and it's layers is an important character. Sean Young was heartbreaking, Harrison Ford was brutally charming, but to me the movie belonged to Rutger Hauer and Darrell Hannah.
I don't know if I can come up with one under-rated movie. There are probably a million of them. One would be Lone Star - another would be Jack the Bear. Both of these movies may have done well with critics - I'm not even sure of how they were rated by reviewers. Whenever I say they are on my top favorite movies of all times list, people look confused. They've never heard of them and both are quiet masterpieces IMO.
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Oct 2, 2007 7:17 PM
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CinderAngelic: Lone Star is fantastic, it's one of my all time favourites as well. To me, Chris Cooper was really a big discovery in that movie, and he hasn't disappointed since.
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Oct 2, 2007 7:22 PM
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Oskar - Chris Cooper is marvelous. Lone Star made me a fan and I'll see anything he's in.
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Oct 2, 2007 11:37 PM
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Count me in as a Lone Star fan. Oh, and that twist ending...
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Oct 2, 2007 11:51 PM
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Lone Star-One of the best. Sayles and Cooper together? Unbeatable. Elizabeth Pena was great. If only Matewan could get some respect too.
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Oct 3, 2007 2:15 AM
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So I broke down, cancelled my plans and got tickets for one of the Friday shows. I'm weak that way!
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Oct 3, 2007 12:08 PM
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Is this new release how ridley scott more what ridley scott wanted the movie to be? If so, I'd like to see it. If not, is there one of the releases that is?
In college I had a class, the title was something like, popular culture and mass media, mass media being of course, books, movies and music.
Do androids dream of electric sheep was one of them, although on that release of the book it was renamed bladerunner and had a picture from the movie on the cover. It's been a couple of years since I read it, but I remember it being quite a bit different from the book. I'll have to reread the book and then watch the movie. I honestly don't know if I've seen it all the way through. I probably have, I just don't really remember it.
What about Westworld? I never hear anyone talk about that movie. It was written & directed by my favorite author, Michael Crichton. It was one of the first (or maybe it was the first) movie to use CGI. It's awesome, I love it. If you haven't seen it, rent it.
This is from the link above:
Westworld was the first feature film to process imagery by computer. We obtained a sort of blocky, animated effect that was remarkable in 1973 - and a cliché seven years later, when similar imagery appeared in every thing from perfume ads to paintings by Salvador Dali.
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Oct 3, 2007 3:48 PM
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Leah I loves me some Westworld! Hell, I like it so much that I'll watch Futureworld when it's on.
Let's just be glad they never made the remake with the Governator (which was threatened for many years).
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Oct 3, 2007 5:01 PM
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Let's just be glad they never made the remake with the Governator (which was threatened for many years).
There's still a remake listed on imdb. There are no details listed (actors, director) but it wouldn't surprise me if it happens eventually.
I really need to buy that movie on dvd.
I've never seen futureworld, mostly because (I don't think) crichton had anything to do with it. Kinda like how jurassic park 3 stunk because there was no book to base it off of.
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Oct 3, 2007 5:08 PM
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Blade Runner is a masterpiece. I'm not sure it's even more so with the stronger hints [since it is never said, outright] that Deckard is a replicant [Scott says he is, but the film never does come right out and say it] - the final edition hasn't played here, yet, so I can't say - though even the version with the voiceover is brilliant - if flawed.
Blade Runner may not be as faithful an adaptation as, say A Scanner Darkly, but it probably comes just as close to the essence of Dick's work.
For me, Jake Speed is a criminally underrated film. It works as a goofy, straight ahead action flick and as a parody/satire on the [as The Destroyer's Warren Murphy called them] men's action novels where the bad guys' names end in vowels."
It's a slight piece of work, but every character is spot on, the action set pieces [despite the low budget] are superb and Wayne Crawford [who also co-wrote] and John Hurt make the perfect Boy Scout Hero and Utterly Evil Villain, respectively. Add to that Mark Snow's utterly unforgetable score and the result is a truly delightful experience.
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Oct 4, 2007 2:50 AM
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Thanks for the info about the final cut, I'm definitely going to be getting my hands on that edition when it comes out on dec 18th. I heard they were retouching the entire movie and re mastering it frame by frame, as well as inserting some scenes that were removed from the original theatrical release. Being a huge fan of BR I came across this site when I was looking for info about the final cut, has anyone heard of the "Inspiring the future" contest? People uploaded tons of fan art, literature, fashion designs and music to the site that was either directly inspired by Blade Runner or just similar, its a great way to see some amazing fan art. The contest is in its voting stage right now. Check out www.bladerunnercontest.com
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Dec 1, 2007 4:13 AM
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